


I Major in Loving You

by YinAndYangOnIce



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, Misunderstanding, Niall is a doofus, University AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-21
Updated: 2014-04-21
Packaged: 2018-01-20 04:59:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1497538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YinAndYangOnIce/pseuds/YinAndYangOnIce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You told him what?” Liam crowed, staring at him with wide, judgmental eyes while Louis howled with laughter next to him.<br/> “I had no choice!” Niall said, dropping his head into his hands miserably. </p>
<p>“Actually, you did,” Liam said incredulously. “You could’ve told him that you weren’t actually part of the art program!”</p>
<p>“But he was putting words in my mouth and I didn’t want to tell him I’d stalked him there and he was really, really hot, Li, I didn’t want to freak him out,” Niall said pleadingly, as if he was appealing in court and Liam was a law student, so he wasn’t that far off. </p>
<p>Or:</p>
<p>Niall is an idiot in love and is just really bad at this romance thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Major in Loving You

Niall knew that he wasn’t exactly the most focused person on the planet. All his teachers always put “easily distractible” on his report cards and his mum still told the story about how he nearly went home with the wrong family when they went to the park one day because he was watching the clouds overhead and not where he was going. It wasn’t really his fault, he just really liked pretty things. 

So when he saw him at Starbucks that day, pretty much the most god damn beautiful person he’d ever seen in his life, with his raven black hair styled up all shiny and tall and cheekbones that he could cut his finger on and stubble on his chin that made him look rugged but still so fucking pretty, he had absolutely no say in the decision his feet made to follow that gorgeous human being out of the coffee shop and through campus.

And he wasn’t even hugely aware that he was moving at the time it was happening, he was just thinking about this stunning person and how he didn’t want to let him out of his sight at any cost and how he was grateful that while the boy was in fact walking (with those legs that went on for miles and looked like in in those skinny jeans, shit,) he somehow wasn’t getting any farther away.

And even then he wasn’t able to put two and two together, he was just watching this boy just be natural and do simple, uninteresting things like check his watch or change the song on his iPod. He wondered what he was listening to. He looked like a guy with an exquisite taste in music.

He was just thinking about how while his hair suggested he was a Queen sort of guy, his body language screamed Usher when he heard someone’s voice cutting through his thoughts. He glanced up and saw that the guy he’d practically stalked here was staring at him with the most amazing eyes he’d ever seen and he hadn’t even realized they’d stopped walking.

Niall didn’t say anything and the guy just kept staring at him and he realized that he must have asked him a question.  
 “Um,” he said because that’s all his head could come up with, panic slowly setting in when he started to realize he’d just followed a person he’d never met before presumably across campus. Damn his attention span. “I’m Niall.” Wow, perfect, now he had a name to report to the police.

The boy’s lip actually quirked up in one corner and he raised a dark eyebrow. “Um, okay? I’m Zayn.” Wow, he had never seen a name fit someone so perfectly and he was glad he was able to know it before he was thrown in jail. “I asked you if you were new here.”

“Huh?” Niall wasn’t sure why he would think that, it was the second semester of the year by then. 

“Oh, I’m sorry, I just assumed… You looked really lost for a minute there and I thought maybe…” the other lad’s dark complexion allowed only a hint of the blush on his cheeks to show through, but it was beautiful all the same. “It’s cool, I get spacey too sometimes.”

“Uh, yeah,” Niall said, because this kid was giving him the benefit of the doubt and that was really, very generous of him. 

“But I really haven’t seen you around here before,” Zayn said, cocking his head thoughtfully. “Are you new to the art department maybe?”

Art what? Niall glanced around and noticed for the first time the paintings and photographs lining the walls and the strange cast of characters scouring them; one girl with blue hair and a folder bigger than her torso clunked by in huge, black boots with spikes sticking out of the back alongside a boy with blonde dread locks and a nose ring. Of course, not everyone looked like that, but they were his favorites so far. Besides the person who’d brought him here, of course. 

Wait, he was getting distracted again.

He had somehow followed the other boy to the school’s art department, which he didn’t even know was a thing, an actual building, he always assumed it would be its own little wing inside of a lab building. All he knew was that he’d never seen this building before, so he must be pretty far from where he was headed. 

And he was really on the spot at this point and this stunning human being was watching him and expecting an answer and he was lucky enough to remember his name, let alone his major and he doesn’t want Zayn to think he’s a freak or something so before he could even think about it he was saying, “Yeah, I am.” And he wasn’t.

Shit.

And the worst part was that he couldn’t even feel bad for lying with the way Zayn’s eyes lit up.

“Oh, that’s awesome!” he said, smiling an adorable grin at him with his tongue tucked behind his perfect, little chiclet teeth. “What’s your specialty?”

Somewhere between What in God’s name is he talking about? and Wow, what a brilliant smile Niall realized that he was most likely asking what type of art he was “studying.” And while he himself considered guitar a form of art, he wasn’t sure that would fly here. 

“Um, a-all of them? I mean, I haven’t picked a favorite yet,” he said while a tiny voice in his head that sounded distinctly like Liam said “You’re a liar. You tell people lies.”

Zayn brows furrowed a little bit in confusion, but if he didn’t believe Niall, he didn’t say anything. “Well, it’s cool that you’re here now so you can explore it and stuff. Do you need someone to show you around? My class doesn’t start for half an hour.”  
 “Oh, uh, sure, that would be great,” Niall said, even though his own class started five minutes ago.  
 “Cool,” Zayn replied, smiling again and Niall had no choice but to let his legs carry him around after this gorgeous boy, because his mind was too busy berating him and certainly wasn’t putting up any sort of fight.

~ ~ ~

“You told him what?” Liam crowed, staring at him with wide, judgmental eyes while Louis howled with laughter next to him.  
 “I had no choice!” Niall said, dropping his head into his hands miserably. 

“Actually, you did,” Liam said incredulously. “You could’ve told him that you weren’t actually part of the art program!”

“But he was putting words in my mouth and I didn’t want to tell him I’d stalked him there and he was really, really hot, Li, I didn’t want to freak him out,” Niall said pleadingly, as if he was appealing in court and Liam was a law student, so he wasn’t that far off. 

“So you lied?” Liam said, before closing his eyes and shaking his head. 

“You can freestyle rap for three minutes straight yet you can’t come up with a good lie on the spot,” Louis said, giggles finally subsiding as he wiped a tear away. “You could’ve just said you were lost.”

“That was once, Louis, and I was drunk,” Niall said. “And I would’ve said that if I had thought of it!”  
 “Look on the bright side,” Louis chirped. “If you ever decide you actually want to be an art student, you already know your way around.” He snorted before dissolving into laughter again and Niall rolled his eyes.

“Hush, Louis,” Liam chided, pinching his roommate in the side and unsuccessfully trying to make him stop laughing. “Anyway, it’s over now. No more pretending you even know what an awl is.”

“What, you mean like the bird?” Niall asked and Liam sighed while Louis started up a whole new round of giggles. Niall felt his cheeks heat up, looking down at his lap. “But actually, though, I did kind of…” he glanced up to see Liam watching him. “Get his number…”

“Niall.”

“And we’re sort of going out for coffee tomorrow,” he said guiltily and Liam groaned, rubbing his hands down his face.

“Good on you, Nialler!” Louis said, suddenly a lot more interested than when it was just a laugh at Niall’s expense. He slapped the blonde on the back, already reaching for his phone. “What’s his name, I’ll find him on Facebook.”

“No, not good on him, bad! Bad on him!” Liam scolded, actually wagging his finger at Niall. “Why would you willingly continue this charade, Niall? There’s no way this could possibly end well.”

“Wow, some faith you have in Niall, Liam. Some friend you are,” Louis said, making a face at him, which Liam quickly returned. 

“And it’s no big deal, he just sees me as a little, I guess,” Niall replied, shrugging and ignoring the pull at his heart at just being Zayn’s little. “He probably wants to give me a little advice, show me the ropes, and that’s it. Will probably forget me in a few weeks.”

“What kind of attitude is that?!” Louis snapped, swatting him sharply on the arm. “Make sure he doesn’t forget you!”

“Louis! He can’t keep hanging with this guy while he’s lying to him like this!” Liam said.

“Calm yourself, Payno, he’s not telling him he’s a bird when he’s really a bloke, it’s just a little white lie, really,” Louis said, waving him off.

“People don’t take well to being lied to, Louis,” he retorted. “Say he does hang out with this guy for a while and they get to be real close. Eventually he’s going to find out. What then?”

“Then he tells him he decided to switch again! What’s the big deal? People do that all the time!” 

“You’re missing the point!”

“Why are you always such a fuddy-duddy?” 

Niall watched the two of them go at it, eyes bouncing back and forth like he was watching a tennis match. The two of them frequently got into these little spats and Niall found it most efficient to just ignore them until one of them conceded (almost always Liam) or they got too tired or hungry and forget about their argument to find sustenance or go to sleep.

As he watched them continue bickering, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and he slid it out, clicking the screen on and smiling when he read that he had a text from Zayn.

So how was your first day as an art student? Officially, I mean :)

Shit, he really hoped Zayn would either forget him (not really) and save him from having to lie or he built an immunity to the guilt that came from it, because it was killing him.

overwhelming he replied, which honestly wasn’t a total lie. Fabricating an entire major is not easy work. how was your not first day as an art student?

Same old same old honestly lol. Only exciting part was meeting the fresh meat ;)

Oh, he was talking about him. Wow. He tried to think of a not desperate way to tell Zayn that meeting him was the most exciting part of not only his day but his year, but all he came up with was;

is there any strange initiation for this place? not gonna have to paint me boxers and string em up the flag pole?

I wouldn’t stop you if you tried though no one’s going to make you aha no, no initiation :)

Phew thought that was how that one girl with blue hair ended up like that. Not one for blue meself.

Who Tonks? lol no that was her own choice on a whim. literally she was in the middle of painting something she mixed up a batch of blue and dipped her head in

you're taking the piss

wait her name is tonks? like harry potter?

Wish I was. 

No, it’s Cindy, but she’s always made people call her that. Which is why she always has different color hair, modeled herself after her I guess

i’m terrified right now

Don’t be, she’s nice. Everyone is, really, you’ll fit in nicely.

Niall pictured his loud, rambunctious self painting awkward stick figures with all of those other artsy kids and somehow doubted it.

we’ll see. so what’s your specialty anyway? never ended up asking you

Visual arts. So a little bit of everything. Mostly painting though :)

I bet you’re fantastic

I like to think so, I guess :) My poor roommate has to deal with the paint fumes constantly so I hope it’s worth it.

I’m sure it is :) 

Niall had stopped listening to his roommates’ arguing a while ago but he was suddenly aware that there was utter silence besides the clicking of his fingers spelling out words and he looked up, shrinking under both pairs of scrutinizing eyes.

“Are you texting him?” they asked simultaneously, one voice disappointed and the other excited.   
 “Yes?” he said, watching the glee on Louis’s face and the dismay on Liam’s. 

“Oh, what’s he saying? Is he waxing poetic about your eyes? That seems like such an artist thing to do!” Louis asked, making grabby-hands at his phone.

“I’m done with both of you,” Liam said and all three of them knew he didn’t mean it. “Enjoy living a lie.”

“He will, thank you,” Louis quipped before turning back to the phone over Niall’s shoulder. “Tell him you like his butt.”

Liam groaned loudly from halfway down the hall and Niall half-regretted not taking his advice. But he obviously couldn’t worry about that now when Louis had grabbed his phone and was already typing “I like your butt” into the new message.

~ ~ ~ 

When Niall walked into the coffee shop, incidentally the same coffee shop that he’d first seen Zayn at, he immediately felt like bailing.

Liam was right, this was stupid, he would figure him out, who was he kidding, he couldn’t lie for shit. Louis was wrong, these jeans were too tight, they can’t possibly look good, he didn’t care that the “artsy-fartsy types” wore jeans like this, he probably looked ridiculous. 

But then he caught a glimpse of Zayn at a table in the corner working on a sketchpad and his hair flat against his forehead and his thoughts immediately shifted to Liam was wrong, this was brilliant, he could be a good liar if he wanted it bad enough and Louis was right, these tight pants were a great idea, according to him, his arse looked fantastic.

Okay, so wait, what does he do now? Does he just stroll right over and plop down? Does he order a drink first but Zayn doesn’t seem to have a drink yet so would it be rude to get one before he got one? Should he take a guess what Zayn would like? No, that’s a horrible idea, what if he’s allergic to something and Niall didn’t know and he ends up killing him, that would be horrible, what-

“Niall!” the sound of his name broke his trance and as his eyes snapped back into focus, he could see Zayn waving at him from the table and beckoning him over. That makes things a little easier, he thought as he walked over, grimacing when he banged his thigh into a chair and apologizing to the woman seated in it. When he looked up, Zayn was smirking, though it looked more endeared than mocking. Smooth.

“I should come with a warning sign,” Niall said once he was at their table and sitting down, but Zayn shook his head.

“I wouldn’t get too worked up over it. She Instagrammed her coffee cup fifteen minutes ago and hasn’t touched it since. If you ask me, she was in your way,” Zayn said, smiling, and Niall’s heart squeezed.

“Well, anyway, hi,” Niall said. “Have you been here long?” His eyes traveled down to the sketchpad sat in front of the other boy, who followed his gaze and then shook his head.

“Oh, no, only a few minutes,” he said. He tapped the end of his pencil on the page in front of him. “Just kind of bring this everywhere with me. In case I get inspired.”

“And were you?” Niall asked, eyeing the rough outlines of a body that had been lightly traced onto the page, just circles and lines except for the head and arms, which Zayn had just started to pencil in darker and add details to. From what Niall could tell, it was a woman, maybe a young girl. 

Zayn shrugged. “Not particularly. Just a doodle.”

A doodle?! Niall thought, noticing the intricate tattoo designs that lined the drawing’s arms. He tried doodling a duck once and got so frustrated he had to go outside, count to ten, then walk back inside and run the chords on his guitar until he calmed down. 

“So, did you want something to drink?” Zayn asked, pointing a thumb towards the counter and Niall nodded, standing up and walking with Zayn to the end of the line.

“Recommend anything?” Zayn asked, glancing up at the board then looking back at Niall. 

“They make a fantastic white hot chocolate,” Niall replied. “You haven’t been here before?”

Zayn shook his head. “First time was yesterday, actually,” he said and that explained why Niall hadn’t seen him around before. 

“Well, if you’re a coffee man, then the Cinnamon Bun Latte is to die for,” Niall said. Zayn nodded, glancing up at the board and reading it.   
 “What’s a ‘Mayan Hot Chocolate’?” he asked.

“Oh, it’s wild, mate, it’s, like, hot chocolate but with all of these spices added into it, so it’s, like, spicy. S’too much for me, honestly,” he said and Zayn seemed to consider it. 

When they got to the front of the line, Niall started fishing for his wallet and when he dug it out, Zayn was rolling his eyes at him.

“What?” 

“Put that away, Blondie, my treat,” he said and before Niall could protest, Zayn was speaking again. “Think of it as my ‘welcome’ gift, okay?”

And there was the guilt again, because now Zayn was buying him coffee under the preface that he was the new kid in the art department when in actuality was not and no amount of flawless cheekbones could make him forget it.

“O-Oh, no, really, it’s okay, Zayn, I can-“

“What do you want?” Zayn interrupted him.

“But-“

“If you don’t give me an answer, I’ll just assume you can’t decide and buy everything on the menu. I’m spending money on you, s’up to you to decide how much,” Zayn deadpanned, but a hint of a smirk at the corner of his lips.

Niall frowned, glancing up at the board. “I’ll have a water.”  
 “Cute,” Zayn scoffed before turning to the barista. “He’ll have a medium Cinnamon Bun Latte, please.”  
 “Zayn!”

“And a medium Mayan Hot Chocolate for me,” Zayn finished, handing the barista, who couldn’t look less interested in their little spat, his card and his name for their order.

“I’m paying you back,” Niall said, crossing his arms.  
 “No, you’re not,” Zayn replied, leading them back to their table to wait.

“I’m buying yours next time,” he said and Zayn nodded, turning around just to ruffle his hair.

“Sure, you are, sport,” he said in what could’ve been condescending but honestly just felt fond and he was sure Zayn intended it that way.

“If you go around buying caffeine for everyone in the art department, you’re going to go broke,” Niall said.

“Please, they don’t need me,” Zayn said, waving a hand at him. “They come in with the strangest-looking concoctions you can think of, it’s ridiculous. If I ordered for them and messed it up, I’d be blacklisted.”  
 “Maybe they can explain to me what a chai tea is,” Niall said. “My roommate tried it once and got really, really angry because it wasn’t anything like the tea he was used to. ‘How can they garbage even parade around as tea, it’s blasphemy!’”

“I can almost promise you that most of them can’t,” Zayn said, chuckling. “It’s a lot of… conjecture with some of them.” Niall cocked his head curiously and Zayn smiled. “A lot of it seems forced sometimes, you know? Like, part of the whole ‘hipster’ act.” He made air-quotes around the word “hipster.”

“So you think some of them aren’t really into art?” Niall asked.

“Not exactly,” Zayn said. “I think they really do like art, but… not in the way they’re trying to say they do. Everything always has a ‘deeper meaning.’ A girl comes in with a picture of a street sign and tries to sell that it represents how we’ve all lost our way and need to return to what we know. But, like, at the end of the day, it’s just a street sign.”

Niall smirked. “How often do they quote ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’?” he asked and started cackling at the broken look Zayn gave him. 

“Last semester, ‘And in this moment, I swear we were infinite’ was immortalized in four tattoos, seven paintings, twelve photographs, and one sculpture, which was, literally, just a bowl,” Zayn listed and Niall snorted.   
 “How many Joy Division shirts?” he asked.

“Easy, I own one of those,” Zayn said, but he was smiling. “But I lost count at thirty-seven. And if I hear anybody mention anything about a record player for the rest of my life, I can’t be held responsible for my actions.”

“So basically it’s every Tom, Dick, and Harry that stumbled across a camera?” Niall asked.

“They’re not all like that,” Zayn said, grinning. “For instance, I actually do know a Harry and he does have a camera, but he’s legit. S’my roommate.”

“Ah, so he’s the poor lad you suffocate with paint fumes,” the blonde said.

“It’s not like he doesn’t return the favor, he turned our walk-in pantry into a dark room until we realized the fumes were bad because it was so close to the kitchen and all of our food was just lying around, so he moved it to the bathroom,” Zayn said and Niall pretended to know what he was talking about when he nodded. 

“Can he do that?” he asked and Zayn shrugged.  
 “Our super hasn’t told us we can’t yet. And it’s our extra bathroom anyway, so it’s not a huge deal,” he said. “He’s one of the select few in the department that I am close to and want to be close to. Until now, that is.” Niall caught Zayn’s eyes and realized that he was talking about him.

“You don’t seem to be like the others, you know? I can’t imagine you ever treating anyone like you’re superior or whatever,” he said. “I mean, I know I don’t know you all that well yet, but… you just seem really genuine, you know?”

Niall didn’t know what to say, honestly, because there was nothing in the world he’d rather do less than disappoint this boy with big, hopeful eyes and an impression of him that couldn’t be farther from the truth. 

He was momentarily saved from having to respond when the barista called Zayn’s name and the darker boy held up a finger before standing and going to retrieve them.

This was a nightmare. Zayn had this wonderful perception of him and expected something amazing out of him and he couldn’t give it to him because he was a liar. 

It wasn't too bad yet, if he was completely honest. It had only been a day, and he could (and should) just come out with it and tell Zayn that he wasn’t who he thought he was. Sure, Zayn would probably be disappointed, but it would be over before he got too deep into anything. 

Zayn was already walking back, smile on his lips and drinks in his hands, and Niall was already coming up with something to say, like “Well, I’ve always considered music a form of art, so technically, I’m in a department of a perception of art,” but then Zayn was in front of him and placing the latte that he had bought for him as a welcome gift in front of him with this huge grin and…

“Um, Zayn?” he started, staring at the cinnamon dusting on the top of his whipped cream unwaveringly. 

“This is actually really good,” Zayn replied, having just sipped from the Mayan hot chocolate he’d ordered. At least, that’s what Niall assumed. He still hadn’t looked up.

“Zayn?” he tried again, moving to take a sip from the glass because he felt too jumpy in his own body and couldn’t stand to be still anymore.

“I hope you don’t feel like I dragged you here,” Zayn said and this time, Niall looked up, taking in Zayn’s crooked, almost apologizing smile. “I mean, you just met me yesterday and I invited you to coffee and everything, it would’ve been completely fine if you hadn’t wanted to.”

“Oh, no, I wa-“

“I know,” the other boy said, smiling a little wider but still as if he was sorry. “I just wanted to make sure. It’s just kinda cool to have someone new around. Gets proper boring when you’re with the same people every day.” He took another sip of his drink and Niall did the same, if only to allow the foam to obscure his view of Zayn for a few seconds. “I just wanted you to feel welcome and all.” And for the first time, Niall noticed Zayn was blushing, his dark complexion hiding most of it, but it was still visible. “Some people get kinda caught up in themselves and I didn’t want you to feel alone. At least, that’s what I thought when I saw you.”

Niall just cocked his head to the side, not trusting his voice not to crack if he spoke.

Zayn looked away for a second, blush becoming more prominent. “I don’t know, just, when I saw you, you struck me as the kind of guy who isn’t used to feeling alone.” That was true. Niall had always had a lot of friends through school and was quick to make them when he came to university. “Just didn’t want you to have to feel that way, you know?”

Niall took another sip, the cinnamon tasting sour and the drink going down like tar. He gulped several times over the lump in his throat.

“Thank you,” he finally said, hoping he looked a lot less guilty than he felt. He forced a smile and Zayn returned it so he figured it didn’t look too much like a grimace. 

“No problem,” he said. “I’m really sorry that all just kinda poured out, weren’t you saying something?”

Niall felt his heart squeeze and he dug his fingers into his thigh through his jeans. “I just wanted to tell you…” he looked at Zayn, those trusting eyes, that smile, starting to wane the longer Niall hesitated. “That I’m definitely paying for your drink next time.”

The smile was back again and Zayn was reaching across the table to punch at his arm playfully. “We’ll see, newbie.”

~ ~ ~

“I am a despicable human being,” Niall groaned into the couch he’d catapulted himself face-first into the second he walked through the door. 

“Ni, I really don’t want to be this guy, but-“ 

“Liam, please do not be the ‘I told you so’ guy,” Louis snapped, returning to the house of cards he’d started building on Niall’s back when he noticed he was sulking. “Stop breathing so much, Nialler, you’re breaking my concentration.”

Niall didn’t respond and there was silence in the room for several seconds.

“Niall, don’t actually stop breathing, Jesus,” Liam said, a trace of alarm in his voice as he tapped Niall’s foot with his knee. 

The blonde boy didn’t answer for a few seconds, then he took a huge breath and sighed again, “I am a despicable human being,” with more force but the same flat voice. 

“Niall, you can’t keep saying that,” Louis said, sticking his tongue out in concentration as he brought another card over to stack with the others. He gave a little cheer when he placed it down and it stayed. “Sooner and later, Disney’s going to start collecting royalties.”

“I want to die,” Niall whined, throwing an arm out to smack against the arm of the sofa and sending Louis’s card tower toppling. The older boy let out a shriek of despair before swatting Niall on the arm several times and then sitting on him.

“I don’t know why you didn’t just tell him the truth,” Liam said. “I don’t know how you kept from telling the truth. You suck at lying.”

“It’s not even that you suck at lying so much as you suck at not telling the truth. Like you physically can’t not tell the truth,” Louis said and Niall nodded lamely.

It was true. Once he had meant to ask his mum to pass the potatoes and instead ended up telling his entire family he was gay. That was an interesting Christmas dinner. (The feedback, fortunately, had been over-all positive, though the incident had been made into somewhat of an annual joke. “Niall, do you want some peas or have anything to confess?”)

“I know,” Niall droned, smacking the arm of the sofa again. “I just couldn’t help it! I tried, but then he was being really sweet and then he was buying me coffee and then he was telling me how he wanted to make sure I felt welcome and not alone because he had felt alone and he wasn’t going to let me pay for coffee next time and he’s so pretty. I should be put to death for lying to a thing so pretty.”

“You really should, mate,” Louis agreed and Niall let out a huge half-sigh, half-wail of despair into the couch. Liam grimaced guiltily.

“Well, hang on, mate, I mean…” he started and Louis’s eyes snapped up to him, wide, like he couldn’t believe Liam was about to comfort him. “Everyone tells a little white lie every now and again, right?”  
 “Liam, this lie is neither little nor white anymore. It’s huge and red, like a zit,” Louis said.

“Ew,” Niall moaned.

“Stable relationships aren’t built on lies, bro,” Louis said sagely, patting Niall on the bum comfortingly. 

“Said the man who hasn’t had a stable relationship in three years,” Niall shot back weakly and Louis frowned. 

“I’ve been fully enjoying my university experience,” Louis said haughtily. “Which is more than I can say for you, because between lying your ass off, you’re sulking or inhaling chicken fingers.”

Niall moaned louder and more miserably and Liam glared at Louis, putting a hand on Niall’s lower back where Louis’s arse wasn’t. 

“Don’t listen to Louis, Nialler, he’s just cranky,” Liam assured him and Louis stuck his tongue out at him. 

“Okay, fine, sorry, that was a bit harsh, but I’m just trying to keep you from setting yourself up for failure,” Louis said, in a display of maturity that well exceeded his mental age and Liam looked at him, impressed if not skeptical.   
“Too late,” Niall sighed.

“Right-o,” Louis said. “All right, enough with the dad-hat, let’s be serious here. You’ve already dug yourself in a little deep, Nialler, I won’t sugarcoat this.” Niall just made a gurgling sound into the upholstery. “But, that doesn’t mean that the story ends here.”

Niall finally lifted his head off of the couch, glancing up in Louis’s direction morosely, but not refuting him.

“You seem to really like this guy. Or am I jumping to conclusions here, do you like this guy?” Niall let out a drawling whine and Louis nodded. “Quite right. And he seems pretty into you, if I’m not mistaken.”

“He was just being nice, Lou, nothing to get too excited over,” Niall said. “Just wanted to welcome me to the art department that I’m not in.”

Louis rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Niall, Niall, Niall, so cute, but still so naive,” he said, leaning down to pinch Niall on the cheek. “Upperclassmen who actually give a shit about a little, lost-looking other people are few and far between. The only reason anyone would stop and help and spend actual money to buy coffee for a complete stranger is if they are interested in you.”  
 “Louis, please, Zayn could have anyone he wanted, why would he want a kid who literally could not remember his own name when we first met,” Niall said glumly and Liam and Louis looked down at him, frowning.

“Nialler, don’t start with the pity thing,” Louis said warningly but Niall just shook his head.

“No, no, Lou, he probably already has someone,” Niall covered his face with his hands, groaning. “Oh, he probably has a girlfriend. God, I just joined the art department for a guy who’s not even gay, let alone single!”

“Niall, relax, you don’t know either of those things for sure,” Liam said. “Look, I think we-“ he glanced over at Louis, who was eyeing him in warning. “Okay, I was a little too harsh in scolding you about this whole thing. You’re a grown-ass boy, you can make your own mistakes and all that.”

“But I don’t want to make my own stupid mistakes, especially when it comes to people like Zayn!” Niall said, kicking his feet against Liam’s thigh. 

“Well, you’re going to,” Louis said, patience apparently wearing thin. He stood up abruptly, grabbed Niall by the shoulder and yanked until he turned over and was lying on his back. Then, he sat back down on Niall’s stomach.

Niall groaned, pushing at Louis’s hip bone. “How is it your arse is so big, but so bony at the same time?”

“Stuff it,” he replied, bouncing a little on Niall’s stomach. “You’re going to make your own mistakes and while prevention would be nice for future reference, you have to deal with the aftermath now. You’re not going to give up a gorgeous, artsy-farsty sensitive type because you lied about what you want to do with your life. Not on my watch.

“Now get up off your arse, splash some water on that face of yours, and call that motherfucker and ask him out for coffee again on Friday.” When he finished, both Niall and Liam were staring at Louis, who was sitting with his arms defiantly crossed over his chest but still a little pink in the cheeks. 

Niall eventually got out from under Louis’s fat-ass and took his phone in hand, trying to figure out a way to ask Zayn out again without sounding too desperate. In the end, his fear got the best of him and he just ended up thanking Zayn again for the coffee and for looking out for him.

No problem, mate, glad to do it :D Looking forward to having you around, came Zayn’s reply and Niall tried to quell the rapid fluttering of his heart as he typed back.

Look forward to being around :), he said, trying not to feel like an awful human being for doing so. It was nice to get to know you. It wasn’t what he wanted, or what Louis expected of him, but it was something.

Same here :) But hey, there’s plenty more to be learned about me. Why stop with today?

Niall smiled, biting his lip. Good question. I assure you I’m more interesting than just what you saw today.

Glad you agree. So how about meeting again sometime later this week?

Does Friday work?

Friday is perfect :) Same place?

See you there!

Awesome :) Well, I have to go do some work. Talk to you later, Niall

Later, Zayn :)

He lowered his arm to his side listlessly, flopping himself onto the bed and staring up at the ceiling. He was fucked.

~ ~ ~

“So, you play guitar, huh?” Zayn said, digging in his pocket for the key to his flat. Niall followed dutifully behind him, taking Zayn’s coffee cup from him when the other boy swore and had to dig more thoroughly to find his key. 

“Yup,” Niall said cheerily, at least happy to have that part of his life out of hiding from Zayn, considering it was pretty much the most important part. He’d actually been just walking back from class with his guitar case over his shoulder when he’d run into Zayn and he’d asked him if he wanted to grab coffee with him. It was a couple of weeks since they’d met and they’d met up quite a few times since then, but this is the first time Zayn had brought Niall to his apartment.

A thought suddenly occurred to him and he added, “Thinking of making it my double major.”    
“What, music?” Zayn said, finally fishing his key out and sticking it into the slot. Niall nodded and Zayn grinned. “Awesome, mate. Proper well-rounded, you are.” Good. It’s not even a lie, he is considering music, in fact he’s been considering it since age seven and it already is his major, but details.

“Sorry, by the way, that I had to drag you back here,” Zayn continued, opening the door and taking back his coffee cup, smiling appreciatively. “I completely forgot that Harry asked me to be home to take his negatives out.” He stepped into the apartment and when Niall followed, he was immediately struck with the overpowering odor of chemicals. He tried to hide how he flinched and how his eyes suddenly started to water, blinking quickly to clear them, but Zayn laughed. “Sorry, mate, forgot to warn you about the smell. Like walking into a brick wall.”

“Little bit, yeah,” Niall agreed, deciding it was no use hiding it anymore and fanning his face as he blinked. “I suppose you’re used to it by now?”

“More or less,” Zayn shrugged. “It almost smells like home, now, you know?” Niall couldn’t really imagine ever getting used to this smell, but he nodded anyway, shrugging.

“Maybe it’s like how my roommate’s dirty gym bag reminds me of home,” he said. Louis’s bag did stink to hell, but it was almost a sentimental stink to him now. Zayn just chuckled.

“Yeah, maybe,” he said. “So please, make yourself at home. I just have to run into Harry’s dark room and take his reel out before they overdevelop.” He put his bag on the ground and his coffee on the table in front of the couch. Niall thanked him, watching as Zayn made his way towards what appeared to be the bathroom. As if he’d read Niall’s thoughts, he stopped before turning back to Niall. “And oh, yeah, remember, the bathroom is now the dark room, so if you need to go, you can find the other bathroom through my room, last one at the end of the hall.”

Niall thanked him and Zayn smiled before opening the door to the bathroom the smallest he could that would still allow him to slip through, and then did. 

He moved towards the sofa in the middle of the room, which was lovingly splattered with paint, and sat himself down, glancing around the room.  
 The walls were covered with different sketches and pictures and canvases and photographs, some so tightly packed in so that they could all fit that they were laid over one another just the slightest bit around the edges so none of the real content was obscured. The paintings were lovely, and Niall didn’t have to be an engineering major (or art major, for that matter,) to know that they were Zayn’s. Some of the paintings were so detailed and so realistic that for a second he had to take a second to decide which ones were photographs and which ones weren’t. There were other drawings as well, just scribbled onto sketch paper and took on a more cartoonish vibe, huge eyes, ridiculous features, and wild, bright colors. All of the drawings had a loopy, scrawled signature that overlapped itself several times in every corner and the date.  
 The photographs were beautiful as well, lots of animals and plants and the sky and smiling faces. Both of the flat’s residents were really talented and suddenly he wanted to get out his guitar and run through the scales just to feel like he was worth something.

After another moment, Zayn emerged from the dark room, momentarily letting an even stronger essence of the chemicals into the living room. “Hey, sorry about that,” he said. “Harry had an exam today and I promised I’d make sure I took his negatives out.” 

“No problem,” Niall said. Zayn smiled gratefully and walked into their kitchen, turning on the sink to wash his hands. When he was done, he walked back over and plopped himself down on the sofa next to Niall, taking his coffee cup in hand and taking a pull. Niall tapped his fingers on his thighs, suddenly nervous. “So, um. Are all of these yours?” He made a sweeping gesture around the room and Zayn nodded, putting his cup down.

“Most of them. The drawings are mine, the photos are Harry’s,” he said.

“They’re all amazing,” he said and Zayn grinned. 

“Yeah, Harry’s got a real eye for photography. Either that or him literally carrying his Canon everywhere he goes with him is paying off,” he smirked. “Probably a little of both.”

Niall looked across the room, eyes finding a photograph of Zayn, eyes scrunched up at the camera, corners folding in on themselves with the force of his smile. He looked to be in the middle of a laugh and he was absolutely stunning.

“You are, too,” Niall said, a little numbly, turning his head but letting his eyes rest on the picture for as long as he could before letting them find the real thing. When he finally looked back to Zayn, he noticed that he was looking at him a little inquisitively. “Amazing, that is. Your pictures! Your pictures are amazing, though I’m sure. You seem pretty… nice, too. Um.”  
 Zayn laughed, face mirroring the picture on the wall. “Thank you,” he said. “Harry and I made an agreement when we got this place together to make it ours, you know? So as we both created more, the walls filled up pretty quick.”

“It’s a really cool idea,” Niall said, letting his eyes tick from picture to picture. He thought about how Zayn had said ours about his and Harry’s place, and weren’t it for extensive Facebook research that told him clearly that Zayn was single (by some grace of God), he’d be sort of worried. Besides that, Zayn had told him that Harry was single the week before, “married to his work but actively seeking a muse”, which meant that Zayn wasn’t Harry’s muse, which he didn’t entirely get because Niall’s song-writing production has increased twofold since he’s met Zayn, but hey, to each their own. If everyone had the same muse, every song would be about whiskey-colored eyes and a voice so syrupy you could pour it on pancakes.

His gaze was still traveling over the pictures when one caught his eye like a fox in a snare and he gasped, on his feet in an instant and crossing the room. “No way,” he said, walking up until he was eye-to-eye with a picture of Zayn at what Niall guessed was eight years old. “You were adorable.”

“Hey, ‘were’?” Zayn teased, standing up and joining him at the wall. 

“Yeah, what happened?” Niall joked back and Zayn pinched his side playfully. Niall tried not to show how his touch sent sparks under his skin. “No, but seriously, this is so cute.”

Zayn had changed a lot since then, face had thinned out and gotten sharper, but there was no mistaking it was him, same amber eyes and smile that Niall had made sure to capture behind his eyelids, that wide and toothy grin with his tongue folded neatly behind his front teeth. Younger Zayn squinted at the camera, another young boy pressed into his side and dimpling back at Niall cheekily. This was one of the few pictures that was in a real, wooden frame, and looked rather old.

“That’s Harry,” Zayn said, nodding to the other boy, who had almost Shirley Temple-like ringlets framing his face. “Still looks like that. Dumb baby face.” Just as he said that, Niall heard the door open down the hall. “Ah, speak of the devil.”

“Honey, I’m home!” a deep voice called out, following seconds later by a young man appearing in the doorway to the living room. He did bear a striking resemblance to the boy in the photo, same chocolate curls haloing his face, though currently he had an olive scarf dotted with what Niall was pretty sure were cats wrapped around his head and holding his hair out of his face. He had the same green eyes and the same dimple in his cheek, same Chesire cat grin, but everything else was pretty different.

He was rather tall and lanky, with legs that went on for days in tight, tight, dark, ripped jeans and a torso that was almost just as long, a low, black v-neck that showed off just the tops of a pair of dark, tattooed birds, from what Niall could see, covering it. The flannel resting on his shoulders’s sleeves were rolled up to his elbow, showing off even more tattoos. And, true to Zayn’s word, he had an expensive-looking black Canon camera hanging from around his neck. His grin was wide and crooked as he stepped into the room.

“Hello, dear,” he said, addressing Zayn before his eyes fell on Niall. “Oh, we have company. Smile!” he said and Niall barely had time to follow his orders before he was lifting his camera and snapping a picture. Zayn groaned from next to him.

“Do you have to do that? You’re disturbing my guest,” Zayn said, though Niall didn’t mind. In fact, his one regret was not having the sense to throw up westside before the picture was taken. 

“I don’t mind,” Niall said, smiling at Harry, who beamed back.

“I wouldn’t either if I were you. You’re very photogenic,” Harry replied, glancing down at the viewfinder on his camera. Niall found himself blushing for some reason and smiled. Harry looked back up, dimple gaping. “I’m Harry, by the way, strange blonde Irishman in my home.”

“Oh, sorry, I’m Niall,” he said, stepping forward and shaking Harry’s hand. 

“Oh, you’re Niall!” Harry said, smile widening if it was possible. “Zayn’s told me about you, you’re the new art kid! Wow, you’re right, Zayn, you could fill a palette with all the colors in his eyes.”  
 “Haz!” Zayn snapped, cheeks flushing and his eyes narrowing at his smirking friend. “Keep talking like that and I’ll open the door next time you’re developing.”

“You won’t,” Harry said, lifting the camera and taking a picture of Zayn’s mortified face as well as Niall’s expression, which he was sure was very red indeed, and probably smiling just a little bit. That’s what it felt like he was doing. “Last time you did that, you cried because you felt so bad.”  
 “I was drunk,” Zayn said, face going redder. “Can’t you go be annoying somewhere else?”

“Goodness me, Niall, how long has he kept you here and he hasn’t even made you tea!” Harry said, putting his hand on his cheek as if he were in distress. He turned to Zayn, trying to glare at him chidingly and failing behind his smirk. “Vagrant.”

“I only brought him here because you were whining about not being able to get your negatives out and I agreed so graciously to do it for you,” Zayn grumbled. “And besides, we have coffee!” But Harry was already rounding the strap of his camera off of his neck and placing it gingerly on the coffee table and walking towards the kitchen. 

“No hospitality whatsoever, making me look like a bad keeper of the house,” Harry was muttering, shaking his head. “Niall, that tea will be ready in two shakes.”

“I had an opportunity to push him off the top of the jungle gym when we were twelve,” Zayn said wistfully. “I should’ve taken it.” 

Suddenly, Harry broke into a rather impressive a capella version of “Milkshakes” and Zayn groaned at the same instant Niall decided he liked Harry very much.

~ ~ ~

“Louis, I swear to God, Buddha, and David Bowie, if you don’t put some trousers on right now,” Niall warned, swiping his hair over to the side in the mirror, trying to decide whether he wanted to gel it. He decided against it, letting it fall gracefully over his forehead.

“You’re not the boss of me,” Louis said petulantly, running across the hall in only his boxers so that Niall could see the reflection of him doing so again, as if to make the point. “And why do I have to come on your date of debauchery and lies anyway?”  
 “It’s not a date,” Niall said, gritting his teeth and smiling gratefully as Liam walked into the bathroom to grab a comb, looking completely ready to leave. The other boy smiled back, running just a little bit of gel over the teeth of the comb and running it through his hair. He turned his gaze back to Louis’s in the mirror. “We’re just going out to dinner with Zayn and Harry. As companions. No debauchery of any kind.”

“But there will be lies,” Louis said, disappearing down the hall and out of Niall’s view. “What kind of friend are you, trying to rope Liam and me into lying for you anyhow?” 

“I’m not asking you to lie for me,” Niall said, walking out of the bathroom to find Louis finally zipping up his jeans. “The topic of majors won’t come up at all tonight, unless the two of you would wish to share yours. Mine is already, unfortunately, a widely known fact.”

“Hey, leaves less for me to remember,” Liam said, shrugging. 

“Well, I still don’t like it,” Louis said, crossing his arms and frowning and honestly, now he was just being difficult. “Makes me feel filthy.”

“Louis, you once told a professor you were getting your hormones for your gender reassignment to get out of an exam,” Niall said flatly and Louis scoffed.

“Only to see if he’d buy it,” Louis said. “And besides, look how badly that turned out!”

It hadn’t gone well, Niall had to admit. Not only did Louis still have to take his exam, that professor once called his name during attendance and asked in front of everyone if he was changing his name and if he wanted him to use female pronouns when he addressed him. 

“Yeah, but you had that coming,” Niall said and Louis pouted. “Come on, it’s food, plus Zayn’s roommate is pretty cute. You can just sit and eat and talk to a cute thing for a little while.”

“Fine,” Louis finally said after a minute, throwing his arms down. “But I’m telling the dildo story.”

“Louis, don’t you dare,” Niall growled, cheeks flaming, stomping after Louis down the hall towards the door.  
 The two bickered over the keys until Liam finally took them and announced that he was driving and they were off.

When they got to the restaurant, Niall wiped his sweaty hands on his jeans nervously, glancing around.

“Mate, relax,” Liam said, bumping his shoulder against Niall’s. “This is Zayn, he’s not hot, mysterious, art boy anymore. You’re friends.”

“Yeah, it’s not Zayn I’m worried about,” Niall said, eyes going to where Louis was trying to stealthily steal mints from the bowl on the hostess stand while keeping direct eye contact with the hostess. And yeah, he was worried about Louis, because he hadn’t introduced Louis to a friend yet that he didn’t tell an embarrassing story to, but he also felt pretty bad about making his friends lie for him too, even though he planned on exactly no one talking about his so-called major during their evening. Truth be told, the knowledge that Zayn thought he was an art major made hanging out with him emotionally exhausting, he wasn’t good at keeping secrets and when someone like Zayn looked at him so earnestly, it was even harder.

“Look, Neil,” Louis said through a mouth full of peppermint as he slinked back over to them. He paused, spit on of his mints into the potted plant next to them, ignoring the horrified glare from the hostess, and continued. “This problem really does have an easy solution, okay? People change their majors all the time. Just keep hanging out with him, then, when next semester rolls around, tell him that you’ve had an epiphany and decided to change your major from art to ‘giving Zayn Malik the best orgasm of his life’.” Liam and Niall winced at the same time. “No, no, hear me out. Then, you can just be like, ‘JK, I’ve actually found my calling with music and sticking to that, but for real about that orgasm thing, that offer’s always open’. Kill two birds with one stone.”

Niall was able to ignore the fact that some of that was actually not a bad idea when he noticed that Zayn was just walking in. He whirled around on his friends, hissing at them pleadingly, “Okay, that’s him, he’s here, please don't embarrass me.” But when he glanced back up, Louis didn’t appear to be listening. In fact, Niall wasn’t entirely sure he was conscious. He was sort of frozen, eyes unblinking as they stared at the door. 

“What’s your problem?” he asked before turning to Liam. “What’s his problem?” Liam just shrugged, watching Louis warily.   
 Niall turned around, trying to follow Louis’s line of vision and came face-to-face with Zayn. Like, literally, nearly banging their noses together. Zayn jumped slightly but then just smiled, eyes crinkling. “Hey, Ni. Sorry we’re late.”

“Oh, no, you’re… not,” Niall was really hoping for coherence but he was literally centimeters from Zayn’s eyes and he just noticed that he had a freckle on the corner of his right eye and he was already writing a new lyric about it in his head. He took a little step back, regaining his composure as he did so. “No, we just got here as well. They’ll seat us in a few minutes.”

Zayn smiled and nodded, mouth opening as if he were to say something when suddenly Harry was by Zayn’s side, eyes wide and mouth dropped open. He stood stock still for a full second before he grabbed Zayn’s arm in an iron grip and yanked him so both of their backs were to Niall. He heard Harry speaking in a hushed voice to Zayn, who glanced back behind them, eyes going over Niall’s shoulder and behind his head. He raised an eyebrow in surprise and approval. When both of them turned back, Niall glanced behind himself too, found Louis standing where Zayn’s gaze had been. Oh. 

Niall tried not to let his heart plummet as Zayn and Harry turned back around, forcing a smile to reflect Zayn’s own genuine one.

“So, can I meet your friends?” he asked, nodding to Liam and Louis, the former of whom was still trying to get the latter to talk again. 

“Uh, sure,” Niall said, trying not to feel sour inside as he gestured Louis and Liam forward. “Zayn, Harry, this is Liam and, um…” Louis still appeared to be out of it, eyes locked on Zayn and Harry. Niall gulped, jealousy and hurt rising like bile in his throat. “Louis.”

“Good to meet you, mate,” Liam said, reaching a hand out to Zayn, who took it cheerily and shook it. He offered the same to Harry, who shook his hand but wasn’t looking at him. When he dropped Liam’s hand, he took a step forward towards Louis, he seemed to lean back just slightly, eyeing him with a look Niall couldn’t place. 

“Hi, um… Louis, was it?” Harry asked, deep voice seeming to surprise Louis out of his stupor, because he was blinking and his voice had an almost impressive snark when it came out.

“Not ‘was’, ‘is’,” he corrected, smirking and Niall realized all at once that Louis had his flirting face on. One eyebrow raised almost critically, like he was appraising the person in front of him and was deciding whether or not he was above them, and a crooked grin on his lips. Niall felt a rush of relief at the same time his stomach filled with dread. Louis was an absolute menace when he was flirting. “And you are?” he said in a haughty voice, even though Niall knew for sure that Louis had heard him introduce them. 

“Harry,” the boy said, eyes sliding over Louis’s considerably smaller frame. Then, he said, without any preamble, “You’re gorgeous, can I shoot you sometime?”

Louis balked, eyes going round and inquisitive. “Pardon?”

“Sorry, shoot a photograph of you. Or several. With a camera. My camera. Can- May I shoot pictures of you sometime? With a camera. My camera,” Harry babbled, eyes going wide in horror as his mouth just kept moving and he could do fuck-all to stop it. 

Louis watched him, wide-eyed and surprised, but the instant he stopped talking, the smirk was back. “Well, that depends, Curly. Will I be modeling in the nude?” 

“Ew,” Liam muttered.

Harry’s eyes were alight with something, something that resembled hunger but not just in a sexual way. Like Harry really, really wanted to shoot Louis nude, but not just for sex purposes. “That’s, um. I can… Whatever you’re comfortable with?”  
 Louis’s smile nearly split his face in half. “You’re in luck. I could be naked right now and I wouldn’t bat an eyelash.”

Niall, Liam, and Harry all groaned at the same time, though Harry’s didn’t have the same inflection as the other two.

Luckily for everyone in the waiting area, the buzzer went off in Liam’s hand and the hostess came over to seat them.

As they followed the girl down the rows between the tables, Zayn fell into step next to him, smirking. “Just so you know, you might be receiving a fruit basket or a box of chocolates in the very near future.”  
 Niall turned to Zayn dubiously, already emotionally spent enough that he could fall asleep into a plate of breadsticks. “Why’s that?” 

“Harry’s positively smitten,” Zayn said, chuckling when Harry tripped over his own feet and nearly brained himself on the corner of a table because he was watching Louis walk in front of him. “You might’ve just given him his muse.”

~ ~ ~

Astonishingly, Louis didn’t tell a single embarrassing story about Niall through the whole appetizer. In fact, he seemed much more content to just sit there and listen to Harry talk, who was doing so as if he and Louis were the only ones at the table. 

“That’s so weird,” Zayn murmured, leaning closer to Niall. “He never usually talks for this long when he’s with someone he just met.”

“That’s funny, Louis never usually shuts up for this long. Ever,” Niall replied and felt a sharp pain explode right in his shin. Louis didn’t even blink, eyes still on Harry as he gestured manically with his hands, but Niall saw the way his hand tightened around his fork, like a threat. He bit back a yelp and turned back to glare at his menu. Or pretended to; he actually just pulled his phone out under the table and fired a quick text to Louis.

Bitch.

Amazingly, he received a reply even though he was sure he’d never seen Louis’s gaze stray from Harry.

Eat a dick.

You should be thanking me, Niall texted back in annoyance. I’m the reason you even met him. You didn’t even want to come!

Yeah, and now, I really, REALLY want to come. So shut the fuck up and let me work.

Gross.

“Gross,” Niall said aloud and Louis kicked him under the table again.

Fortunately, Zayn didn’t notice, he and Liam were chatting amicably over their calamari, which Niall reached for and bit into poutingly. Louis was the world’s worst wingman.

~ ~ ~

“I can’t believe you,” Niall grumbled, storming into their flat and throwing his jacket over the back of the sofa angrily before disappearing into the kitchen. Louis followed behind him, chin held high but to his credit looking at least a little embarrassed.

“I can,” Liam snorted, shrugging when Louis sent him a hard glare. “What? You’re kind of a slut, Lou.”

Louis’s jaw fell open. “I am not a slut!” he cried incredulously. “You’re both acting like I threw him on the table and ate his arse right in the middle of the restaurant!”

“Ugh, that’s it, I’m going to bed,” Liam said, wrinkling his nose and putting his hands up in front of him as if to ward off Louis’s words. “That’s all I can take today. Good night.” He started walking down the hall, waving at Niall as he emerged from the kitchen with a beer in his hand and a glare on his brow. Louis caught it and huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“What, so I’m visibly attracted to one guy for the first time all year and suddenly I’m Slag Supreme?” he snarked. 

“Louis, you knew how nervous I was about tonight,” Niall replied, pushing past Louis so he could sit on the couch. Louis followed him, still frowning deeply.

“And what, I ruined this evening for you somehow?” he asked icily and Niall sighed, anger quickly dissolving. He’d never been good at staying mad at his oldest friend, and besides, he hadn’t really done much wrong.

“No, it’s just-… you know how freaked out I get about stuff like this, Lou. You’re my best mate and I really needed you there and responsive and coherent,” he said, taking a swig of his beer before continuing. “Just felt kinda abandoned.”

Louis’s expression softened almost instantly and he sat down on the couch next to Niall, throwing an arm around the blonde’s shoulders and yanking him closer. “I’m sorry, Ni. Really. I was just a little blind-sided, okay? Harry’s…” he blew a puff of air out meaningfully, the gust making his bangs flip up for a second. “He’s something, I don’t really know yet. But trust me when I say that I would’ve come to the rescue in a heartbeat had I thought you needed it.”

“I did need it,” Niall whined, unable to believe that he had actually wanted Louis to tell an embarrassing story whenever there was an awkward silence. 

“Look, I know it looked like I was completely absent,” Niall scoffed and Louis pointedly pinched the skin under his arm. “But I was paying attention. You were fine, Nialler. Every bit as charming as you usually are.”   
Niall had a hard time believing him, but he smiled anyway. “Not too giggly?” he asked, thinking back to how he’d nearly spilt his drink everywhere because he was laughing so hard at one of the stories Zayn had told.

“Mate, if you had been any gigglier, you would’ve been a hyena,” Louis said seriously and Niall groaned, setting his beer on the floor in favor of burying his head in his hands. Louis chuckled, patting Niall on the shoulder. “But that’s good, mate, part of your charm! Your laugh is one of your best features and though you might not believe it, the disgustingly endeared look on Zayn’s face was proof enough.”

Niall didn’t make a move to reveal how much his heart had just sped up, or how unaware he’d been that Zayn had been making any face of the kind, but he did let a small smile play on his lips and roll his eyes.

“Please, you have the gall to call Zayn disgusting? I never knew it was possible to give someone a blow job solely through eye contact until I watched you and Harry tonight,” he said, laughing when Louis shoved him so he landed on his side in the pillows.  
 “Well, if we were doing that through eye contact, then you and Zayn were definitely viscerally cuddling, let me tell you,” Louis said. “If you two were cartoon characters, your corneas would be permanently heart-shaped. At least I was getting some eye contact action, you prude.”

“You know what, just for that, I’m not going to ask Zayn for Harry’s number for you,” Niall quipped, leaning down over the cushions to grab for his beer, which Louis promptly swiped from his hands. “Hey!”

“You underestimate and insult me, Niall Horan,” he said, taking a long, full gulp from the drink, pinky extended haughtily. “I’ve already got his number. Got it while you were deciding on dessert. And you’ll be pleased to know that he has more emojis next to his name than yours.”

Niall threw his hands up over his heart, as if he were struck. “You whore!” 

“You weren’t giving me what I needed,” Louis said flippantly, leaving the now-empty beer can between the sofa’s cushions before getting up and meandering away. “I’ve moved on.”

A little while later, while Niall was scrolling through his computer, he got a text from Zayn.

Harry’s been listening to Beyoncé ever since we got home.

Niall smirked, thumbing back a reply.

Independent-don’t-need-no-man Beyoncé or independent-don’t-need-no-man-but-I-got-one-fuck-you-bitches Beyoncé?

The second one, mostly. But then Partition came on and it’s been on repeat ever since. Ew. 

Ew. I sincerely apologize for my roommate’s influence on your roommate. If it makes you feel any better, Harry’s already outranked me in emojis in Louis’s phone. 

Ouch. Sorry about that, mate. I think I have to go. Harry’s trying to sing the French part in Partition and I’m worried he’s going to hurt himself. Talk to you tomorrow?

Yes, that does sound pressing. Go take care of him. And absolutely :)

Great ;) Thanks for dinner, by the way. All gross roommate-cest aside, it was fun :) Do it again soon?

Niall grinned, biting his bottom lip hard as he answered.

Definitely! Take care of Harry and have a good night :)

A second later, his phone buzzed with the reply.

Sweet dreams :) xx

Niall lay there for a minute, then he rolled over and shouted into his pillow, kicking his feet on the duvet, until he fell asleep with a smile on his face. 

~ ~ ~

It was a couple of days after that fateful dinner party and Niall had all of their take-out menus out in front of him, eyeing them perplexedly. 

“Liam!” he shouted down the hall. “Get your ass in here and help me decide what we’re having for dinner!”

Liam appeared in the hallway a few moments later, shirtless and with his sweatpants riding low, low on his hips, under which he was obviously not wearing briefs or underwear of any kind. His hair wasn’t done up and he was scratching at his two-day stubble lazily. Man, if Liam wasn’t straight and like a brother to Niall, he’d probably be on that like butter on toast. 

“We have spaghetti and also bread and stuff to make sandwiches,” he said, sitting at the table across from Niall and eyeing the take-out menus uncertainly.

“I don’t want spaghetti or sandwiches that I have to assemble,” Niall said grumpily. “I want someone to bring food to me. It’s a power thing, don’t ask.”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” Liam said drily. He looked over the menus laid out in front of him. “Can we get Chinese so I can slip something nasty into Louis’s fortune cookie before he gets back?”

“Works for me,” Niall said, grabbing for the Chinese menu and standing up to get the phone. “Where is Louis, anyway? I haven’t seen him all day.”

“I don’t know, but I’m not his first SnapChat friend anymore,” Liam said, pouting. Liam and Louis had a SnapChat rivalry to transcend generations. “I’ve been replaced by some harlot called ‘BananaNutStyles’.” 

“Oh, that’s Harry,” Niall said, receiving a look from Harry that said “No, duh.” Niall just shrugged. 

“You two are leaving me behind for other hot men,” Liam said. “I thought I was your favorite.”

“We gay men can be so fickle,” Niall muttered, punching in the number. “I promise, Payno, you’ll always be my number one.”

Just as Niall finished up their order, the door down the hall opened and Louis walked in.

“Welcome back, Jezebel,” Liam said, getting a swift swat on the back of the head as Louis passed for his troubles. “Chatted any Snaps with other men, lately?”

“Not other, just one,” Louis said, opening the fridge and retrieving a bottle of water. “I would say jealousy isn’t a good look for you, but that would be lying, please continue.” He twisted the cap and took a pull from the water before addressing Niall. “Zayn says ‘hi’, by the way.”

Niall looked up, puzzled. “Zayn? When did you see Zayn?”

“When I was at his flat, like, ten minutes ago?” Louis said. “Harry invited me over. Showed me his dark room and everything.”

“Is that, like, a sex dungeon?” Liam asked, by the look on his face, only about half-joking. 

“No, you uncultured, beautiful creature,” Louis said. “It’s where he develops his photos.”

“Well, I’m happy for you, Lou,” Niall said absently, having opened up a new game of 2048. “Harry is a great guy.”   
Louis smiled, sitting down at the table with them. “Thank you, Neil. Zayn is pretty swell, I should say, as well.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Niall said, swearing under his breath as he lost the game. “So are you and Mr. Styles an item or…?”

“Niall, I just met the man three days ago,” Louis said, putting a hand delicately over his heart. “I am a gentleman and as such do not condone or participate in the practice of jumping into relationships right off the bat.”

Liam hummed his agreement, or disbelief, possibly, and stood up when he heard the doorbell ring.

“Liam, dear, do put a shirt on if you’re going to retrieve our take-away. Leave Niall and me our little secret treasure,” Louis called poshly, patting Liam on the bottom as he turned on his heel and walked down the hall to get a shirt.

“I swear, the two of you just keep me around for my looks,” Liam said when he reemerged from his room, having pointedly grabbed one of Louis’s t-shirts and stretching it out.   “That’s preposterous,” Niall said, not looking up from his phone.

“You make mean quesadillas, too,” Louis said.

~ ~ ~

Your roommate is a menace is the text Niall got from Zayn later that night and he froze in mid-step, absolutely mortified. What had he done, made a mess of Zayn’s apartment? Burned down his building? Tried to touch his butt before he even got to?

Whatever he did, I’m so sorry and I understand if you never want to talk to me again, he replied, already stomping his way to Louis’s room.

“Louis!” he snapped as he phone vibrated with another text.

Oh no, nothing like, EVIL or something though that might depend on your definition. He’s just… coquettish

Coquettish?

Yeah.

One Google definition search later, Niall felt a little queasy. 

Oh God, I am so sorry. What did he do? Did he do the banana thing?

I was thoroughly impressed, if not traumatized, Zayn texted back and Niall groaned. He was standing outside of Louis’s door and, probably hearing his distress, Louis himself popped his head out of the door.

“You rang, love?” he asked blandly, hair wet from having just taken a shower.

“You did the banana thing? In front of Zayn?” Niall crowed, wishing he was surprised when Louis just gave him a blank look. 

“It wasn’t for Zayn, and frankly, I’m a little miffed that he saw it. This isn’t a free show,” Louis said, pointing to his pouting lips. “No, that was for Harry. Zayn was just in the cross-fire.

“I thought you were taking this slow,” Niall said, typing out a new text to Zayn. Just talked to him, he says he’s very sorry.

“I most certainly do not,” Louis griped, reading the text over his shoulder and grabbing at the phone in Niall’s hand. “And I am taking it slow. The banana thing is the precursor and free preview of the dick thing.”

“Oh my God,” Niall groaned, tapping his phone against his forehead in despair. “Tell me you didn’t just grab the banana and go ‘hey, look, what I can do!’.”

“Do you mistake me for an amateur?” Louis sniffed. “Harry is literally addicted to bananas. Like, no exaggeration, twelve-step-program addicted. I was just showing him what we have in common.”

“You are a plague upon this Earth,” Niall said, wincing when his phone pinged with a new message.

He shouldn’t be SORRY exactly, just aware that Harry has been staring at the bananas in our kitchen and hasn’t moved since he left

Niall showed the message to Louis, who smirked, grossly pleased with himself.

“I’d like to thank the Academy, and genetics for gifting me with no gag reflex.”

~ ~ ~

Niall was on his computer, tapping lazily through pictures of some of his friends (Zayn) when a chat box blipped open, covering the boy’s handsome face. As it turns out, the chat was from Zayn himself.

Hey, have you had Clarisse yet?

Niall instantly started to panic, of course, because what is Zayn talking about? Had he meant to message him or maybe this was meant for someone else? 

Huh? he replied, hoping it didn’t make him sound like an enormous moron.

Oh, I guess that’s a no then aha. Sorry, Clarisse is Professor Aman, she’s a visual arts professor. I thought you might’ve had her. She’s really good.

Shit, art people speak. Okay, stay calm, you can do this, Niall told himself.

Oh, really? Maybe I will take her.

Her class, I mean.

Smooth like butter, Niall thought miserably, smiling in spite of himself when Zayn sent a laughing emoticon back. 

So who have you had already? Maybe I’ve had them too.

Oh, fuck. Niall was in some deep shit now. If he was completely honest, over the past week or so, just texting Zayn or meeting him for coffee or lamenting over the sudden and rather obscene relationship blossoming between their respective roommates, he’d completely forgotten that Zayn thought he was in the same department as him. He’d kind of just assumed that it wouldn’t be a thing he had to worry about anymore, that maybe they’d moved past that and could be friends and never mention majors ever. 

“Liam!” Niall screamed, waiting approximately three seconds before Liam was barreling into his room, eyes wide with terror. 

“What? What is it, what’s wrong?” he asked urgently and Niall felt sort of bad for making Liam think his relationship issues were matters similar to that of DEFCON 2.

“Uh, Zayn’s asking me stuff about… art major things and I, um,” he trailed off awkwardly, watching as Liam’s terrified face morphed into one of mild rage. “Help?”

“Why is it never ‘Liam, how was your day?’ or ‘Is there anything I can help you with today, Liam?’” he grumbled as he stalked over to the bed and shoving Niall over, sitting down and looking at the chat box. “All right, Maddie Chaveoux.”

“Excuse me?” Niall asked.

“Professor Madeline Chaveoux. I took her Drawing and Painting I class last semester for my GA credit,” he said. “Just tell him that that’s the only class you’ve taken so far, you’ll sign up for more next semester.”  
 Niall threw his arms around his friend’s shoulders, pulling him close while Liam muttered, “Or you could just, you know, tell him the truth, but it’s whatever, really.”

I’ve only ever had Maddie Chaveoux, do you know her?

I think so. What does she teach?

Drawing and Painting I. It’s the only art class I’ve been able to take so far, but I do plan on taking more. Any suggestions? :)

Zayn proceeded to rattle off a long list of all his favorite professors, what they taught, why they were great, all of that important art stuff that Niall only about because Zayn cared about them. 

I will definitely remember that :) Thanks, mate. 

I’m flattered you value my input :)

Niall sat back against his headboard, heaving a sigh of relief. Crisis averted. 

Then, his chat box dinged again.

So, like, what type of art do you like the most? Or like what style? 

Niall stared at the message for a few seconds.

“Liam!”

~ ~ ~

It was about a week and a half later that Louis came home with a different air about him. That air. Also, like, half a dozen hickies littering the skin above the neckline of his loose sweater, with the promise of more underneath the fabric. 

“So much for slow,” Niall snorted when Louis walked into his room and he could practically smell it on him. Louis, to his surprise, glared at him icily until he looked down at his hands repentantly. “Sorry.”

“Damn right,” Louis snapped. “And as I’m sure you’re well aware, I am in here to gloat because I, Louis Tomlinson, am now sole owner and proprietor to one Harold Styles. So don’t fucking ruin it with your snark, assbag.”

“Like you’re one to talk about snark,” Niall griped. “But I am happy for you, mate. Harry’s really great. I just don’t understand how you do it.”

“Do what?” Louis asked, sitting down on Niall’s bed and inspecting his fingernails. 

“Like, you just met him,” Niall said, ignoring the cross look he received in response. “And you’re already dating. How? Do you court at all? Is it a mating dance thing?” He’s only half-kidding.

“It’s not always like this for me,” Louis said. “I feel like Harry and I met and clicked instantly and it was just really easy from there to sort of get together. There doesn’t always have to be a friendship-grace period.”

“Don’t you go all Love Yoda on me, Louis,” Niall said, pointing at him and frowning. “You had dinosaur chicken nuggets for lunch, you don’t get to be mature.”

“You shared those chicken nuggets, Romeo,” Louis said. “And seriously, Harry and I just realized we were attracted to each other right away and we went for it. Better than all the dancing you’re doing around Zayn.”

“When you met Harry, the first thing he literally said to you was ‘you’re gorgeous’. You were practically in from the word ‘go’ and you knew it. I have nothing like that to go by with Zayn,” Niall said. And it was true. Zayn was friendly with Niall, but not more so than he was with anyone else.   
“The man bought you coffee the day after you met him and formally welcomed you to Artsy-Fartsy Land, Ni. There are lots of new students who join the art department every year, but he isn’t becoming besties with all of them. Or any of them, actually. Just you,” he said, reaching out and poking Niall in the cheek. 

Niall was still considering this when Louis’s phone screen lit up with a SnapChat from BananaNutStyles. Louis opened it and the picture showed Harry grinning his goofy grin at the camera while Zayn held him in a headlock, smirking.

It took five minutes, a wrestling match, and some careful maneuvering to be able to take the picture in the position they were in, with Louis and his fat ass perched on Niall’s back.

~ ~ ~

Another week went by and Niall received another text from Zayn. Another being because he’d literally just replied to Niall’s text from a few minutes ago in full when he sent another one out.

Um, so Harry just sexiled me from our flat. Can I chill with you for a bit?

Louis was somehow humiliating him yet goading Zayn into spending time with him in the same fell swoop and Niall was both grateful and mortified.

Christ, of course, sorry about that! :(

In the next second, he shot a text to Louis.

Louis! You can’t shun Zayn from his own flat!

It was a good seven minutes before he got a reply. 

I did nothing of the sort. Harry didn’t even ask him to leave, he could’ve stayed.

Niall grimaced. No, Louis, I’ve known you since we were kids, okay, he really couldn’t have. 

Louis’s full reply was just the banana followed by the tongue emoji and Niall figured it was time to leave it alone. He sent another text to Zayn.

Okay, yes, come over please, no man should have to live with that. You can stay over with us.

Oh no, that’s fine, I don’t want to put you out or anything. I’m kicked out anyway, thought I’d go see you, kill two birds with one stone :)

Niall didn’t have the time or coherence to try and decipher all the secret meanings behind that, so he just responded Nonsense, you’re staying with us. We’ll order pizza. He sent Zayn his address and a few seconds later, Zayn replied.

Well, if it’s really not any trouble… That’d be awesome :) Thanks. 

It’s not, and no problem! See you soon!

It wasn’t even ten minutes later that Niall realized that Zayn Malik was coming over. To his flat. To sleep over. 

Fuck.

~ ~ ~

“Liam!” Niall burst into Liam’s bedroom panicked expression lifting when he noticed Sophia was over, curled up next to Liam with his laptop spread over both of their laps. Liam glanced up, one eyebrow raised in a mixture of annoyance and curiosity and Sophia just smiled, waving. Liam had one of his arms draped over her shoulders and their legs were entwined together and Niall realized in agony that he was the only single member of his household.

“Need something, mate?” Liam asked, lifting the remote and hitting mute on the show they were watching.

“A swift kick in the nuts,” Niall muttered miserably, shoulders slumping and prompting a groan out of Liam and surprised giggle out of Sophia. “Hi, Soph,” he tacked on at the end.

“Hello, darling,” she replied cheerily. “What’s got you so upset?”

“Boys,” he said, taking it upon himself to plop himself down next to her and lay back against the pillows with them.

“Ugh, tell me about it,” Sophia cooed, turning her back to Liam, who looked indignant, and cradling Niall’s head. “My poor babe.”

“Niall, you’re gay, why does this always happen?” Liam pouted, crossing his arms petulantly.

“I can’t help that I’m so cute,” Niall said flatly, lacking his usual luster and Liam actually frowned.

“For real, mate, what is bothering you?” he asked, sitting up on his elbow to look over at Niall. “You came in here all loud and stuff, now you’re droopy.”

“My singularity is getting me down,” Niall grumbled. “And not only that, but the person with whom I’m interested in helping me cancel my subscription to ‘Eternal Loneliness Forever-ly’ is gonna be here in-“ he stopped suddenly, sitting bolt upright and looking around frantically.

“Niall, what the-?”

“Zayn’s gonna be here in like fifteen minutes, Liam,” Niall hissed, standing up and running around the things and throwing random things into slightly cleaner-looking locations. “Get off your arse and help me clean up, oh God, what do I do, what do I say, I’m completely-“

“Niall! Relax, mate!” Liam said, standing up and putting a hand on Niall’s shoulder to calm him down. “It’s just Zayn! He’s as chill as they come. It’ll be just like going over his flat.”

“That makes me zero-point-five percent less nervous,” Niall griped. “And his flat is nice, there’s pictures and drawings and paintings all over the walls and-“ he stopped short, gasping in so suddenly that Liam made a worried expression that told him he thought Niall was having an attack. “I’M NOT AN ART MAJOR.”

Liam blinked at him for a second, then exchanged glances with his girlfriend, who shrugged, looking horribly confused, then turned back to Niall. “Um, yes, we know that, Nialler. That’s kinda how all of this began, yeah?”

“Exactly!” Niall cried. “Zayn and Harry are art majors and their house is covered in proof of it, meanwhile, ours is just covered in proof that we order take-out four times a week. Which we have to clean up, like, now, by the way.”

“You told me you stopped doing that,” Sophia piped up crossly and Liam smiled guiltily at her, before returning his gaze to Niall.

“Look, Ni, our flat is fine. Not every art major wallpapers their house with their art,” he said, squeezing Niall’s shoulder to try and ground him. “You don’t see undeniable proof of me studying law everywhere, do you?”

At that moment, Sophia muttered a soft “ow” and squirmed on the bed, only to reach under the covers and pull out one of Liam’s bulky law books that she’d apparently sat on. Liam stared at it, then stared at Niall, smiling sheepishly.

“I’m so fucked.”

“No, you’re not, Ni,” Sophia said, standing up from the bed and swaying towards Niall. She put her hand on Liam’s shoulder and tapped him until he was out of the way. “Tap out, Li, I’ll take it from here.” Liam huffed and rolled his eyes. “It was a valiant effort, babe, just… go clean up the take-out boxes.” He nodded, kissing her on the cheek and ruffling Niall’s hair before begrudgingly stomping out of the room.

Sophia turned then, her eyes trained on Niall.

“All right, listen, Niall, this is all going to be very simple,” she said, firm yet kind and Niall knew she was the perfect fit for her elementary education major. “We’re going to order pizza, which, by the way, is going to be your last take-out of the week because you’re eating it too much. I’ll bring over pasta tomorrow.”

“Marry me,” Niall sighed and Sophia smirked.

“If only,” she said. “Now, after the movie, we’re going to watch a movie, maybe two. That way you can be physically close to Zayn but not have to talk and by the time the movie’s over, you’ll be so comfortable around him in your own home, you’d think he lives here. You’re just not used to him being in a different setting than what you’re used to and that’s making you anxious. Plus, Li and I will be here the whole time. No problem. Okay?”

“Liam doesn’t deserve you,” Niall joked and Sophia laughed, drawing him into a hug. 

“Hey!” a voice squawked from the hallway, followed by the sound of what must’ve been toppling Chinese food boxes. 

“Nah, he’s all right,” Sophia responded fondly, letting him go to leave and help Liam pick up the mess he’d made, and Niall wished desperately for someone to be fond like that for him. Preferably, if at all possible, the handsome, dark art major that was due in his house in nine minu- shit.

~ ~ ~  
 Once Zayn arrived to the moderately cleaner apartment, Niall felt a serenity lay over his nervousness that only a beautiful face like Zayn’s could bring about. He was still anxious, sure, but it was well-veiled for now. 

They devoured the pizza. Well, the boys did, Sophia had ordered herself a salad and ate it daintily while chatting and getting to know Zayn (and every time she was sure Zayn had at least turned his head, sending Niall approving looks.) Once the food was depleted, Sophia suggested that they all watch a movie (she then sent Niall a less-than-subtle wink) and they all agreed, sitting down on the sofas while Liam set it up.

Zayn, to Niall’s surprise, bypassed the recliner hat they had in their living room besides the love-seat that Liam and Sophia had already occupied and sat right next to Niall on the couch, grinning widely when Niall sent him a surprised look. 

“Hope you’re a cuddler,” he teased, probably not realized the fire those words set behind his ribs. 

“Like a koala,” he replied, receiving a gorgeous smile as a reward. 

Once the movie started, they all fell into a comfortable quiet, watching the screen and Niall even felt himself relaxing a bit, leaning back into the chair and, subsequently, Zayn’s arm, which was lying on top of the sofa. Niall flushed, thankful for the lights being off so it wouldn’t show, but didn’t move or react to the touch at all.

The movie really was a great idea. It was funny, it was an excuse to be close, and it was an excuse to be quiet in a non-awkward way.  
 The only snag was that they were twenty minutes into “500 Days of Summer” when Niall looked over and noticed Liam whispering in Sophia’s ear, then smirking and leaning in to kiss her. And staying there. So there was that.

He waited for them to resurface, only feeling slightly guilty for his voyeurism and feeling less and less so the longer they stayed together. When it became clear that they wouldn’t be separating anytime soon, Niall frowned, once again left out to dry by his best mates because they were busy finding love as effortlessly as breathing. 

“Man, Tom is such a douche,” Zayn suddenly said from next to him, leaning closer to him and causing the crease in his brow to lift a little.

“I know, they really should never have used Joseph Gordon-Levitt to represent such a knob. He’s too beautiful to be treated like this,” he said and only realized after Zayn smirked at him that he still had no idea whether or not Zayn was gay. 

“Oh, no doubt,” he replied, which okay. “This kid was hot when he had shoulder-length hair, like, please treat him like a prince for the rest of his life.”  
 And okay, this is good, Niall thought to himself, feeling his chest open up considerably with Zayn’s words. He wasn’t sure if it was the brazen respect for JGL that every should wear on their sleeve or the fact that Zayn seemed to, at the very least, be interested in both men and women, but suddenly he felt a little more comfortable.

Even more so when Zayn leaned his head on Niall’s shoulder when the movie was halfway through and Liam and Sophia had finally emerged from their little bubble.   
“Thank God, I honestly thought they were going to drown.”

Niall was more than a little enamored.

(Zayn did end up asking at the end of the movie whether or not Niall had any of his own work lying around his flat and when Niall nearly swallowed his tongue trying to come up with an answer, Sophia stepped in and said that he kept it at home because his mum liked looking at it when she missed him. She was an angel.)

~ ~ ~

Zayn had barely stepped out of the flat the next morning, having thanked Niall and Liam profusely for loaning out their coach to him, before he shot a text to Louis.

I should be furious at you for sexing Zayn out of house and home but he’s so sweet and he makes the best chocolate chip pancakes in the entire universe I’m going to marry him.

Louis’s reply came in the form of a picture of Harry sleeping like a little baby, no shirt and looking delightfully cozy.

I do it all for you, Nialler. I put up with this for you ;)

~ ~ ~

It was nearly three weeks after Zayn had stayed over after being sexiled (he’d stayed over twice more for that reason and once more just for fun, and Niall was becoming rather impressed with his comfort with it all, but he figured that if he still wasn’t comfortable by this point, he had some problems,) and he and Zayn were texting almost every day and he really is grateful that Louis found gross puppy-dog love with Zayn’s roommate because it gave them all the more reasons to go out and eat together and hang out. Often times, Liam would bring Sophia along and Harry and Louis would obviously be doing their own nasty couple thing, so that left Zayn and Niall with a lot of time to talk together.

One weekend that Zayn had gone home, he had SnapChatted Niall a picture of an entire wall covered in graffiti, with the caption “Home Sweet Home” underneath it. When he asked about it, Zayn told him that it was a room in his basement at home that he had commandeered and decided to paint all over with whatever he wanted, under the ground rules set by his mother that they were family appropriate and he always wore a mask.

He got several more pictures over the hour, of his wall from different angles, specific pieces that he was particularly proud of, and new pieces he was working on. After a while, he sent Zayn a selfie of him making an over-exaggerated pout with the caption “Can you do a graffiti of me?” to which Zayn replied with a picture of him with his mask over most of his face, only his eyes showing, which were crinkling at the corners with a hidden smile, and his hair undone, flopping down over his forehead. 

“No, I don’t like you ;)”

(It was a couple hours later that he got another Snap of a brand new addition to his wall; a four-leaf clover on a rounded triangle that Niall recognized as a guitar pick. The caption underneath it was just the four-leaf clover emoji and a winky face and Niall was so besotted, he ran into the kitchen table twice and Louis counted eleven dreamy sighs during dinner.)

~ ~ ~

As nice as the connection he now had with Zayn through Louis and Harry’s relationship was, there were some aspects of it that took getting used to. 

“Just let me grab my laptop, okay?” Zayn had said, disappearing down the hall towards his bedroom while Niall nodded and headed towards the couch. They had decided to study together for their respective gen. ed. exams and Niall sat down and waited for him, letting his eyes sweep over the wall of pictures and paintings, looking at some of his favorites before scanning the wall for any new pieces.

There was the usual new things that had been added every time he came over, little doodles, a couple shots from a new roll, but there was one that caught his attention almost instantly that he couldn’t drag his eyes away from.

It was Louis. But that wasn’t so surprising, Louis was already on this wall. So was Niall, and hell, even Liam and Sophia had made their way up there, Harry always having his camera on him made it sort of difficult not to end up one of his models and besides, none of them seemed to mind, he was very good at finding the right angle and lighting and they all looked fantastic in all of his pictures, even the candids. But this picture was different.

Louis had his back to the camera, but he was looking over his shoulder towards the camera, and he was sat on a chair. His knees were tucked under him so that his toes were just peeking out from under his bum. He was facing a window, so light was pouring in over him, his hair was unstyled so the sunshine that fell over him created a halo around his head. His eyelashes looked so incredibly long, in a way Niall had never noticed they were, resting on the apples of his cheeks like butterfly kisses. His face was soft and calm, so unlike his usual, spastic, excited smirk, he could be sleeping. And Louis was nude.

And it wasn’t like Niall had never seen Louis in the nude before, they’d been best friends their entire lives and neither was too bashful, but he’d never seen Louis like this. Niall felt that he should be a little embarrassed or uncomfortable with this picture, seeing his best friend so vulnerable and unlike how he’d ever seen him, but he wasn’t. It was probably due to the fact that the picture was absolutely brilliant.

“Gorgeous, isn’t it?” Zayn’s voice suddenly broke through his thoughts as he walked back into the room and Niall hadn’t noticed until then that he had gotten up out of his seat to get a closer look at the picture. He nodded and Zayn’s lip quirked up. “Yeah, I keep telling Haz that that needs to be in a gallery somewhere, it’s so good. But he refuses, says it’s too special to share. Just wants it for him.”

Niall looked back at the picture, thought of the few days last week where Louis had been uncharacteristically quiet whenever Harry came over but more smiley than Niall had seen him in a long, long time. They spent a lot more time cuddling and trading little, sweet kisses than usual, time they usually spent making out or laughing obnoxiously together. He sort of understood why that was now.

“That’s incredible,” Niall said.

“I know,” Zayn agreed. “And it’s amazing, that’s so something I want to do for someone I really like someday, too, you know? Create something of them that means so much that I don’t want anyone else to see it.”

Niall could only nod, swallowing around his heart that was beating in his throat because he wanted to do the exact same thing with his music, write ballads that perfectly immortalized someone (Zayn) and then to lock them away forever so no one but the two of them could have it. And Zayn wanted that too and there was an endless list of things he’d do to be that person for him. He didn’t tell him that though. He just swallowed and said,

“So, statistics?” Zayn laughed and nodded, throwing an arm around hi shoulder and leading him back to the sofa. 

He tried to ignore the way Zayn’s knee was lightly brushing his own the entire time and trying to tell himself this crush was still only just that.

~ ~ ~

Niall knew that this lie of his couldn’t end well, but for a while, he’d actually forgotten because it actually hadn’t taken a real prevalent role in their friendship. Sure, that was how it started, but as they got to know each other and know other things about each other that expanded past what they were studying, it became a non-issue. And he was thankful for that because then it meant that whatever Zayn liked about him, he liked about him, not because he thought they were in the same major, not that he thought Zayn shallow enough for that. 

But of course, like always, it had to come back to smite him.

~ ~ ~

Hey, can we talk? I have something I really need to ask you.

Niall swore he felt his heart stop and Liam noticed immediately the change in his demeanor, considering he’d stopped talking mid-sentence when he looked down at his phone. Liam had swiped his phone out of his hand but Niall barely noticed as he thought about the words Zayn had just sent him.

“Li, give me that, I need to respond,” he said, gulping to force down his trembling. Liam just looked up at him, smirking.

“This sounds promising, Nialler,” he said, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. Niall just rolled his eyes and snatched the phone back. He balked, however, before replying to Zayn.

“You think so?” he asked, and then it was Liam’s turn to roll his eyes. 

“Louis!” he called, goading the older boy out of his room and, apparently, out of a nap, if his sleepy frown was anything to go by.

“That’s funny, it doesn’t look like you’ve made me cookies, which would be the only valid excuse for waking me up,” Louis griped grumpily but Liam ignored it, taking Niall’s phone again and shoving it in his face. Louis leaned back, taking the phone and putting it at a good length considering he was wearing his glasses. After a second, he gasped and threw his arms around Niall, yanking him down to his height.

“Oh, mazel tov, my little bubelah!” he cried, patting Niall’s head but the blonde boy squirmed under his touch. 

“You and Harry need to stop watching reruns of The Nanny,” he muttered, standing up. “And come on, guys, this doesn’t necessarily mean anything. It could be anything.”

“But it could be him asking you out,” Louis said, smile much too bright for someone who just woke up.

“Look, I’m not gonna let you guys get my hopes up too much about this,” Niall said, though his pounding heart and clammy palms said differently. “When I get back, there’s going to be an 85% chance that I’m still single.”

“But 15% ain’t bad,” Liam said and Niall grimaced, trying not to let himself get too excited as he texted back.

Sure, our regular coffee place? :)

~ ~ ~

“Hey, mate,” Zayn said, waving him over to their table when he saw Niall walk in. He smiled hugely as Niall sat down, tapping a coffee cup sitting in front of him. 

“Aw, thanks, Z,” Niall said, picking up the drink and taking a swig. Cinnamon Bun. Zayn knew him a little too well. “So what’s up?”

“Oh, nothing, really. I just, um. I kinda have something I want to ask you,” Zayn said, suddenly looking a little shy and Liam and Louis’s words rushed back into his head. Could Zayn really, finally be asking him out?

Not much had changed since the two of them had become friends. Zayn was a rather tactile person once he got to know anyone, so he usually sat a little closer to Niall than other people might and Niall had noticed that he sometimes catches Zayn smiling at him and there was that time last week that he had felt Zayn’s fingers playing with the hair at the base of his neck while they were watching a movie in his flat, but could he actually want to be with Niall?

“So, I was wondering,” Zayn said and Niall suddenly remembered that whatever he was about to ask him, it was happening right now and he couldn’t really feel his toes. “I was wondering if maybe you wouldn’t mind-“  
 “Yes, Zayn, of course.”

Niall blinked, face flushing embarrassingly fast as he realized that the word had left his lips without his permission. Shit, he hadn’t even let the guy finish. Zayn, however, looked confused if not pleasantly surprised.

“Really? That’s amazing!” he said, eyes twinkling in excitement in a way that sent Niall’s heart soaring. Wait, did he seriously just get asked out by Zayn Malik? “How did you know I was going to ask about the project?”

Oh.

Apparently not.

“Project?” Niall asked, hoping his utter confusion masked his heartbreak. 

“Yeah, my modeling project,” Zayn said, raising his eyebrows at Niall. “I have to get someone to draw me. I figured Harry must’ve mentioned something about it to you.” He watched Niall for a few seconds, puzzled. “Or maybe not? Did you think I was going to ask something else?”

Niall’s eyes widened, panicking. “Oh, no, no. That’s-“ he paused, swallowing around the lump in his throat. “That’s exactly what I thought you were going to ask.”

~ ~ ~

Later on, Zayn texted him about the project in more detail. For his art instruction class, he had to find another art major and ask him or her if he could model for them while they captured him artistically in one mode or another. 

I was going to ask Harry to do it, but I figure that he takes pictures of me all the time and I kinda wanted you to do it :) Really excited about it actually xxx

Niall could die.

“Come on, Ni, it’s not the end of the world,” Liam said consolingly, arm wrapped around Niall’s shoulders after he’d told him the whole story.

Except that it sort of was. He was sure that, for Zayn’s project, there would have to be visible proof that Niall was an art major or, at the very least, somewhat adept at art, which definitely not be apparent in this drawing that he was supposed to do of Zayn, because a) he wasn’t actually an art major, and b) he sucked at drawing so, so badly. He’d actually tried to draw a few pictures since this whole thing started, maybe trying to train himself into some sort of talent for the paintbrush while this facade was going on, but to no avail. Liam and Louis, of course, assured him that it wasn’t that bad at all and even went so far as to hang it up on the refrigerator, but Niall knew it was no good, was reminded every time he walked into the kitchen.

Niall ignored Liam’s words, just mumbled, “Shouldn’t you be telling me ‘I told you so’? You told me that this was bound to happen from the very beginning. Now the jig is up and I’m about to make an idiot out of myself in front of the guy I like more than I’ve liked anyone in a long time.”

Liam frowned, watching him for a few seconds. “Niall, I’m not going to lie, I knew this was a bad idea from the start. And you knew that I thought that. But Zayn’s a great guy, and he really seems to like you, mate. I really, highly doubt that he’d completely stop hanging out with you just because of this.”   
“He might,” Niall sighed.

“He might not,” Liam pointed out. “And I really think that if you tell him the reason this whole thing started, like, that you liked him so much, he definitely won’t start ignoring you. I can’t guarantee he won’t be mad, but I’m sure he’ll understand.”

Niall didn’t say anything, just continued to look down at his twiddling thumbs.

“Or…” Liam said, wincing to himself. “You could just tell him that you don’t think you can do it? Hold off the bubble burst?”

Niall wasn’t going to lie, he had considered this. But he thought back to the text he’d sent Zayn, that read, But me? Are you sure? There are a lot of other people you could’ve asked, to which Zayn replied, Yeah, but I don’t want THEM to do it. You’re sort of the only one I wanted to ask :). He sighed. 

“Nah, can’t do that,” Niall said and he felt Liam relax next to him, probably relieved he wasn’t going to prolong the inevitable. “I think I’ve gone as far as I can go with this, you know? Might as well get it over with so we can move on.” 

Liam pat him on the back, standing up. “It’s the right thing to do, Ni. You’ll be glad once it’s off of your chest.”

Niall nodded, smiling at Liam before the other boy turned and walked away towards his room. Niall heaved out a breath and lifted his phone, reading over the last text he’d received from Zayn.

Thank you SO much Niall this means a lot! :) Can’t wait! xxx

He smiled despite himself, heart heavy and at the same time feeling lighter already at the knowledge that he wouldn’t be lying for much longer.

~ ~ ~

A few days later, Niall found himself sitting behind an easel, palms sweating around the pencil in his hand, and Zayn smiling hugely at him from in front of the canvas.

“Thank you so much again for doing this,” Zayn said earnestly, clasping his hands together. “I’ve been wanting to see what your style is like, you know?”   
Niall nodded, smiling lamely while swallowing down his anxiety. “No problem, mate,” he said. “Now, if you want to, like, find a pose or something? Is that how you want to do this?”

“It’s up to you, bro,” Zayn replied, smiling at Niall. “If that’s what you want me to do.”

“Why don’t you, um,” Niall racked his brain, wondering what would be the most artist-y thing to say, until he realized it didn’t really matter at this point. “Why don’t you just do what makes you most comfortable and we’ll go from there.”

Zayn nodded, grinning, before moving to sit against the wall, looking out the window of the art room thoughtfully. The light was filtering in through from the late day sun and was hitting Zayn’s high cheekbones beautifully, making the hollows of his cheeks and his jawline even more pronounced. His eyelashes swept out from his pretty, caramel eyes, lit up by the sunlight, giving his entire face an elegant feel. His lips looked pillowy soft and orange hues were laced through the jet black of his hair from the slowly setting sun. He was beautiful.

Niall only wished that he actually possessed the skills to capture that beauty, but he didn’t. And even if he did, he doubted he could do him justice anyway.

And besides, he had a plan. It wasn’t a good one, considering a good plan is usually measured by how likely it was to reach a certain objective, but since the intrinsic circumstances of this plan had no particularly good outcome, he settled for it just being a plan and just having an outcome.

“Ready?” he asked, and Zayn nodded minutely, trying to keep the pose, a smile tilting the edges of his lips up. “Okay, I’m gonna start now.”

Without much preamble after that, Niall pressed the pencil to the canvas and began writing. He wrote his entire message out, making sure to use sweeping motions every so often to simulate actually drawing. The message took up the entire canvas, though to be honest, Niall wasn’t trying to hard to compress his handwriting to make it particularly small. He just wrote.

After half an hour of writing and making stupid doodles on the side every so often to stretch out the time it would take to convincingly draw a model, he asked Zayn if he wanted a break or anything. Zayn shrugged.

“I could use some water, but I don’t wanna move in case I lose the pose,” he said and Niall nodded, wanting to tell him that pose or not, it didn’t really matter, but he wasn’t quite done yet, so he just moved to grab Zayn a water bottle he had in his bag. After he watched Zayn take a long gulp of water, eyes trained on his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat, he decided to indulge himself just a little and grabbed Zayn’s cheeks, tilting him this way and that and pretending to find the perfect again. After a few seconds and Zayn’s snorting, he stopped when his head was tilted about ninety degrees to the left.

“Marvelous, darling,” he said exaggeratedly, smirking when Zayn laughed out loud and readjusted his head.

After another minute, Niall sat behind the canvas and took the palette and paintbrush in his hand and set to work. He started out with black, but made sure to switch colors every few lines of writing as he painted over the penciled in words so they were bolder and more vibrant. Soon, the canvas was filled with his writing in blacks and blues and reds and purples and greens and oranges and when he ran out of words to paint over, he painted some more, around the border and the edge and in between the lines of sentences, only lightly so as to not ruin the whole point of the “letter”: the words.

He kept this up for another hour or so before he spoke again, “I think I’m almost done.”

“Can’t wait to see it, mate,” Zayn said, beaming at him sideways from his posed seat against the wall.

Niall swallowed, running over the practiced lines in his head before he said them aloud, “I do have one request, though, Zayn,” he said and Zayn’s eyes glanced towards him, though his head didn’t move. “I’m actually sort of bashful about my work, you know, so if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, would you mind waiting until I was out of the room before you look at it? You can tell me what you think outside, but. Is that okay?”

“Oh, yeah, absolutely, mate,” Zayn said, eyes genuine and understanding and Niall could barely stand it.  
 He let another fifteen minutes pass before he sat up, eyes running over the “masterpiece.” “I think…” he paused, pretending to have noticed something was off with it and dipping his brush into a dab of paint and adding it to the painting. “There, I think I’m finished.” 

He let his eyes look over the canvas one more time, smiling wryly at it. As he watched the words all unfold on the page, he felt light, lighter than he’d felt in a while, since this whole thing began. It was such a ridiculous thing to have kept to himself this whole time, but it was off his chest now.

“So, I’ll just, uh. I’ll head outside and you can take a look and tell em what you think, yeah?” Niall asked, standing up just as Zayn did. He grinned.

“Sure, Ni,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll love it.” He beamed at him as they walked past each other, patting him on the shoulder as he made his way to the canvas, Niall to the door. As he closed the door behind him, Niall just saw Zayn turning the corner to let his eyes fall on the easel and the canvas perched atop it.

~ ~ ~

Hey Zayn,

So, um, I guess you’re going to be pretty confused right about now. I probably should explain. So, first things first. I’m not an artist. I’m not an art major. I never WAS an art major. Truthfully, I’m a vocal performance and music major. It’s a really stupid and ironically funny (not ha-ha funny, just. funny) story I guess. So, when I first saw you, it wasn’t at the art department building, it was at the coffee shop, the one we go to together now, like, every day. I saw you there and I was just like. I don’t wanna say it was love at first sight because that sounds so amazingly dumb, but it was, okay? I saw you and you were like nothing I’ve ever seen. You were beautiful and gorgeous and distracting in the best possible way and the next thing I knew, I was following you and that sounds so absurdly creepy and I wish I could say it wasn’t really, but I was physically following you, mate. So, sorry, first of all. For that. But then out of nowhere I was suddenly in the art building with you and I had already STALKED you there and I was like shit, what do I do now, I can’t just tell this amazingly hot guy that I followed him here and you, bless your heart, gave me an out by asking me if I was new around here and, stupid, stupid me, I said yes, because I didn’t want you to think I was crazy and I thought oh, okay, I can just use that as an excuse and escape and I’ll never see you again, it would just be another embarrassing day for me to wish hadn’t happened. But then, you, like, offered to show me around, which was going above and beyond the call of duty for an upperclassman to treat an underclassman (which, um. I’m not really, by the way. We never really brought this up, but you and I are both sophomores. I don’t know if you thought I was a freshman but. I’m, uh. not.) So then we got coffee and the next thing I knew, we were friends, like, GOOD FRIENDS and you were so incredibly sweet and nice and I wanted to tell you, I really did, but the time never seemed right, which is a lame-ass excuse, I realize, but it’s just that the more time we spent together, the less willing I was to lose you and your friendship, so I sort of let it persist and I’m really sorry about that, honestly. I didn’t really know what to do for the longest time, all I did know was that you’re gorgeous and funny and smart and sweet and I was and am kinda really stupid over you. So that was this whole thing. I’m really, REALLY so very sorry about it all. I’m a shit human being and an even shittier romance-type person, but I hope we can still be friends. I mean, I know, regardless that we’ll probably see some of each other, considering Harry and Louis are attached at the hip and probably making out in my bed at this very moment, so I hope we can get along, but if you kinda don’t want anything to do with me, I understand. I also apologize in advance because I can guarantee that even if you don’t want anything to do with me and we run into each other I AM going to pine just a little bit, so sorry.   
Really just really sorry about this all. Hope you can forgive me but understand if you don’t. I probably would be really pissed but hey that’s me. So, um. Bye

(Platonic) hugs and kisses,

Niall

P.S. You’re probably gonna want to ask Harry to take those pictures of you now. Sorry you’re hung out to dry with this project seeing as how I can’t draw worth for shit. Another reason why I suck. Okay. Bye.

~ ~ ~

Niall waited, sitting outside of the art room and picking under his fingernails as the minutes ticked by. He wondered what would happen. Would Zayn come out and glare at him and yell? That didn’t really seem like him. More likely was him coming out and giving him a disappointing look and walking away, which seemed even worse than the yelling. 

He was contemplating how much worse he could make the situation by leaving before Zayn could come out when the door opened and Zayn stepped out, his face blank as his eyes fell on Niall. The darker boy stared at him for a few seconds before moving to sit down next to Niall against the wall. 

There was a long, uncomfortable silence that lasted nearly five minutes before Zayn said, “So.” And Niall was off like a rocket. 

“Okay, so I know I said this a million times in the painting thing, but I really am so sorry, Zayn. I didn’t mean to follow you, I just. You were really gorgeous, are really gorgeous and I couldn’t help myself if I tried, and I really should’ve ended it there and I know that, and even if I didn’t, God knows Liam would’ve made sure I knew, he was against this from the start, he knew what he was talking about and I should’ve listened, but I didn’t and suddenly here I was, with this shitty lie on my chest and I felt like this wasn’t the best way to tell you that but at this point in the game, any way of telling you would’ve been the wrong way and I didn’t know what to do about anything, I still don’t. The only thing I know is that I really like you a lot and I-“ 

Niall’s lips were still moving just a little as Zayn sealed his own over his but they went still very quickly after that, frozen against the soft warmth of the other boy’s mouth. He started returning it cautiously after a few seconds, not sure if he’d passed out from lack of air from babbling so much and was dreaming or if this was really happening. When Zayn’s hand came around to cup Niall under his chin, he figured it was real enough and let his eyes fall closed, committing fully to the kiss.

When they both pulled back, Zayn was smiling at him softly and Niall knew his cheeks must be red, but nowhere near as red as his lips must’ve been.

“So, um,” he stopped, face heating up as he cleared his throat, trying to keep it from cracking. “So you’re not mad?”

“No, I’m kinda mad,” Zayn said, letting his hand drop from Niall’s chin to on top of the blonde’s hand on the floor. “I’m also not dumb. I knew you probably weren’t painting. It takes more than two hours to make a full portrait. On average.”

“Oh,” Niall said, smiling sheepishly. He wished he was more ashamed, but there was no way he could be with Zayn’s fingers lacing with his and his lips still tingling from their kiss. “I mean, I wish I could say that I knew that, but, um. I didn’t. I’m not an art major after all. Sorry about that, honestly.”

“It’s… sort of okay, like I get it,” Zayn said, shrugging. “Like, when we were in my flat and I said that I wanted to make art for someone that I like one day, too, I was lying. Like, well, not about the painting stuff for someone I like part, but about whether or not I’d already done it. I have a sketchbook hidden in my dresser completely filled with pictures of your stupid face.” He smirked, leaning over to press a kiss over Niall’s quickly spreading smile. 

“Oh, well. I have a whole notebook with songs about you. Your eyes and hands and and smile face and tattoos and butt,” he winced, his filter completely offline today apparently, but he couldn’t find it in himself to be mad about it when Zayn smiled at him like that.

“Well, maybe we should trade sometime,” he said, starting to stand up and taking Niall with him. Neither of them made another move and Niall watched Zayn, trying to read him.

“So, like, I know we just snogged a little bit, which was awesome, good work, by the way,” he said, bringing a chuckle out of Zayn. “But I totally understand if you don’t, like. Want to see me for a little bit. Like, I can’t imagine that I would ever be mad enough at you to not want to see your face, but hey, you’re not me and I’m not you, so um-“ Zayn had apparently decided to patent his method of shutting Niall up with his lips. 

“I’m not completely not mad yet,” he said, smiling ruefully. “But you can start to make it up to me. Say, over dinner?”  
 Niall grinned, barely containing his excitement as he bounced on his toes and leaned over to press a kiss to Zayn’s cheek. 

“Absolutely,” he said, already pulling Zayn down the hall by their interlaced fingers.


End file.
